


In Times Like These

by LilithRevised



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fair warning I am writing on an empty stomach so be prepared for hangry posting, Grief/Mourning, I have a rough outline but tags will likely change, I have two romantic interests in mind but haven't picked yet, Illness/injury, M/M, MGiT, Modern Women in Thedas, Other, Romance, There will however be relationships, Work In Progress, also maybe I should warn you about language, and maybe weird things about loving food, but not too weird
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2019-02-22
Packaged: 2019-05-05 17:33:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14623680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilithRevised/pseuds/LilithRevised
Summary: When Natalia lost her parents and went to live with Grams in the mountainous wilds of BC, they bonded over the Dragon Age games.  But Grams isn't your average cuddly grandma, that knits doilies.  Grams is a bit of a bad ass. And she also knits, cuz it's a damn post-apocalyptic survival skill.  And post-apocalypse, maybe someone might want doilies to brighten up their day? Eh?But where was I...oh yeah, bonding over Dragon Age...A few years later Natalia is home from medical school for a visit, hiking with Grams when a familiar face appears.  They are dropped in Thedas, separate and with nothing more than the packs on their backs, and a certain mark in hand.Will Natalia fall in love?  Will Grams and Cassandra have an "Ugh" off?  Will Cullen's head explode? Will Jim stumble into everything or become the hero we all deserve?Well that's the beauty of a work in progress isn't it? *wink*





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So...this is my first posted fic. I'm having issues with tense (i.e. I keep forgetting about it) so I might have to make minor adjustments here and there. 
> 
> I am open to constructive criticism, and friendly banter a-like. So feel free to comment as your beautiful heart compels you.
> 
> I have a general outline for the beginning of this fic, and an image in my head of where I want this to go. But I'm still not set on some details. We shall see how this goes.

A truck pulls up a long dirt driveway and comes to a stop in the middle of several rustic log structures.  Both doors open, and from the passenger side a young girl climbs out and slings her sky blue hiking pack onto her back.  Natalia’s eyes are red and dry from too much crying.  She takes in her surroundings before climbing the steps to the largest cabin to wait by the door. 

Grams effortlessly lifts an oversized suitcase from the back of the pickup, and hauls it to the door with little effort.  She casts a sad smile at her granddaughter before unlocking the door to let her inside.  “Talia, your room is all set up, but if you want one of the other ones I can help you move your things…” She trails off as her granddaughter takes in a deep breath and takes in the familiar sight of the cabin.

“It’s okay Grams,” Natalia shakes her head and sits on the bench to unlace her hiking boots, “I’d rather sleep in my old room.  It feels wrong to…” Natalia’s face crinkles and her red hair covers her face as her head falls.

“Oh Tali-cat,” Grams sits on the bench beside her and wraps her arms around her son’s daughter in a tight squeeze, “ I miss them too.”

The two women sit on the bench for a few moments, holding each other tightly.  The younger’s head nestled under the elder’s chin. 

They release slowly, hesitant to let go.  After a soft sigh, Grams gets up.  “Why don’t you pick something to make for supper, and I’ll take your bags upstairs?  After supper I have a surprise for you.”

 

* * *

 

 

After slurping up the last of the spaghetti with cheese and tomato sauce, Natalia and Grams lean back in their seats, stuffed.

“Ugh Grams, I’m six seconds away from a carb coma,” Natalia wipes some sauce from her chin with a napkin, “God that’s so good!”

Grams smiles at Natalia’s laugh, “It’s been a long time since I’ve had pasta.  I’m gonna have to hike all day tomorrow to work this off.”

“Who are you kidding Grams,” Natalia raises her eyebrow mischievously, “you are going to burn this off just by doing your usual chores.  No need for extra exercise. You are the mountain woman version of a workaholic”

Grams playfully scoffs at her granddaughter’s accusation, “And with that lip, you’re doing the dishes.”

With a wide smile, Natalia begins clearing the table. “I was going to do that anyways.”

A few minutes later, dishes drying on the rack, Grams turns to Natalia, “That surprise I have for you is in the living room if you want to have a look at it now.”

Natalia dries her hands quickly and scoots into the living room to see what the mysterious surprise is.  On the coffee table is a box with a game console, and a video game case on top.  “You got me a game console?  That’s so awesome! But I thought you didn’t like video games?”

Grams comes into the room with a bit of a smirk, “Well I didn’t, but then Miranda from town said that she’d been having a roaring good time bonding with her grandson over some game called Call of Duty.  Well I’ve had my fill of people shooting each other for devil knows what reason, and I remembered how much you like fantasy stories.  The girl working at the game store said this Dragon Age: Origins was new, and had a really good storyline.  So I thought you and I could enjoy it together.”

“Grams! That’s amazing! My friends were telling me about this game, and I really wanted to try it.  But are you sure Grams?  There are supposed to be some really dark elements to this game.”

Grams smiles at the anxious girl, “You know what Tali-cat? Life is sometimes dark.  Sometimes fictional darkness is a safe place to work out the rough patches we have in real life.”

“Mum and Dad used to say that fiction is an ethical laboratory.” Natalia’s eyes fall to the floor.

Grams walks across the room and wraps Natalia in a warm embrace, “I know dearie, I used to tell your Dad that when he started writing and your Mum loved your Dad's darker experiments with narrative,” Grams pulls her face back just enough to see Natalia smile through her tears, “Let’s honour their memory by putting that theory into practice, shall we?”


	2. A Walk in the Woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A hike, a special gift, and the gift of gab.

“Hey Grams, are you sure we’re not lost? I swear I’ve seen that boulder before.” Natalia smirks at the irritated glare Grams gives her.

“Of course you’ve seen that boulder before. We’ve been hiking this trail since you were nine. Are we going to mark your height on it again this year?”

“Woo!” Natalia leaps into the air, and scurries to the side of the boulder with carved hatch marks representing her many years on earth. 

Grams chuckles, and pulls out the chalk and old chisel and hammer she brought for this specific purpose. “I doubt you’re much taller now at 25 then you were at 24, but who knows...maybe all that yoga has made you taller.”

Nat dropped her pack, and pressed herself against the boulder and sure enough, she lined right up with the highest line cut into the stone. Grams went through the motions as always, marking the line with chalk, shooing Natalia out of the way, and raising the chisel to knock a new dash to mark their passing. Natalia nodded in satisfaction and the two women sorted out their gear and continued on their way. 

Another hour of hiking and they came upon an old, but well cared for one room cabin in a small clearing. Natalia squealed with delight, and scurried up the door, unlocked it, and headed inside to drop her pack. 

Grams stayed back and looked past the cabin to the view off the side of the mountain. There was a cliff about twenty meters from the back of the cabin, with a sheer drop, and a view of the forested valley through the trees. The clearing was mostly man made. Someone before her had chopped down dozens of the old cedar trees years before she’d ever moved into the mountains, and there were old tree stumps scattered all over the clearing. Many of them had old markings, and piles of stones, and faint markings of paint, from her granddaughter’s many attempts to make “fairy houses” when she was younger, and to “artfully beautify” the space when she was a teen. She took a deep breath of the cedar scented air, smiled, and headed into the cabin, ripe with purpose.

Grams walked into a surprising energetic whirlwind of activity. Surprising because the two women had been hiking since just after sunrise, and the sun was quite low in the west. Since the cabin was on the east facing side of the mountain, it was getting quite dark, and there wasn’t much time if Natalia was going to be able to try out her surprise. 

“Tali-bear, I brought something up here a few weeks ago for you to try out. Do you think you could get it? It’s in the large cedar chest near the sofa.” Grams watched with amusement as Natalia fiddled with the latch on the chest. It always stuck.

“Did you bring any lock picks? Or a crowbar? I can never get this thing…” the top of the chest suddenly popped open, causing Natalia to stumble back a bit, “...or it could do that...what is…?” Natalia’s jaw dropped as she reached in to remove the prize inside. An intricately carved recurve bow, and quiver full of hand made arrows.

Grams smiled at the suddenly silent woman. “You remember Matt and Josh? The couple that bought your old home? Last year the walnut tree your parents loved was hit by lightning, and part of it fell. They contacted me to find out if I wanted the wood. They even made a special vacation road trip out of lugging it up here. I checked around and found a hunter who makes his own bows. He did the work in exchange for permission to hunt on my land for a season.”

Natalia's eyes teared up and her knuckles turned white as she clutched the bow firmly to her heart. “Which branch? Was it…?”

Grams sighed gently, “The one your swing was on? Yes...I'm sorry Tali-bear. But I thought…” Grams took a step towards Natalia. 

Natalia lunged into Grams’ embrace. “I love it! It's beautiful. Thank you.”

For a few moments the women held each other, rocking slightly. Grams pulled back first, “Well now, if you're gonna try it you'd better get at it soon. It'll be too dark soon.”

Natalia wiped her tears away with a nod and a smile. 

The rest of the evening passed in it's traditional joyful serenity. Natalia used an old dead cedar trunk for target practice, her high school archery team skill coming back quickly. Grams made a pot of tea and watched, occasionally adjusting Natalia's stance. Soon it was nearly too dark to see, and they went back to the cabin for a light dinner, and cribbage. 

“I noticed online you started playing Inquisition again. Are you playing multiplayer, or…?” Grams raised an inquisitive eyebrow. 

Natalia smiled, “yeah...just killing time with some friends I met. I'm thinking about starting a new play through though.”

“Mages or Templars?”

Natalia smiled at the obligatory question, “Templars this time. I've never really gotten around to playing an uber religious Trevelyan two-handed, super serious, self worshiping snob. Plus, despite my love of the Solavellan romance, I really don't want to miss out on punching Solas in the face.”

Lukewarm tea may or may not have made its way up Grams’ nose (she'd never tell), but there was a great deal of cackling with a tea towel pressed to her face. “I've met you Tali-bear. You're going to end up shipping Cullen, making friends with everyone, and completely forget you planned to be a dick this time.”

“Nah...I'll remember. I was gonna name him something like Dicktonite. Or Jerkov. Or Slappy...I dunno...don't judge me!” Natalia whined under Grams mockingly critical eyebrow. 

“Well be that as it may,” Grams had a sly look, “ I've met you, and I'm certain that Sir Cockenslap the 3rd will fall madly in love with either Cassandra or Josephine, and have an epic romance written by Varric.”

It was Natalia's turn to spit tea, and the two women giggled until tears flowed freely. 

“You know, if the Herald had a partner...someone that was just as respected as them...they might have been able to go to both...don't you think?” Natalia looked at Grams and took a long draw on her (remaining) tea. 

“Are we doing headcanon hypotheticals now Tali-bear?” Grams smiled, “I don't think so. As soon as the Herald sets out to talk to one faction, the other slams the door shut. I've always suspected that the leaders of each side use that the Herald is going to the other one as the final incentive to push their followers over the final ledge.”

Natalia nods, and pauses to sip her tea, “but the envy demon and Alexius are both in a sort of different situation. Alexius desperately needs the Herald so that The Elder One will cure his son, but the Envy demon doesn't have any fixed need other than it wants to become the Herald. To become more powerful.”

Grams leans back in her chair, “so you're saying that if the inquisition could send someone as tempting as the Herald, the inquisition might save both? But there's no one else the Envy demon wants.” 

“Maybe,” Natalia mumbles, then smiles and winks at Grams, “I can always work it out in a fanfic.”

“Ugh! Complete with Cullen smut I'm sure.” Grams laughs as Natalia rolls her eyes. “Now The Iron Bull...that's someone I could sink my teeth into.” Grams leans forward with a whisper, “...biiiig...musclessss…”

Natalia and Grams burst out laughing. The rest of the evening is spent exchanging half baked Dragon Age theories, romances, and potential fanfic topics. Once the tea was finished, and the women began to yawn they silently cleaned the dishes, wished each other goodnight, and fell asleep with an agreement to go on an early morning hike.


End file.
